


Sunlit Arcana

by Gothams_Only_Wolf



Series: Arcana [2]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Alternate Universe - Military, Ancient Egyptian Deities, Angela is Biracial, Bast - Freeform, F/M, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Inari Okamī - Freeform, Japanese Mythology & Folklore, Kid Fic, Kid Mako Mori, M/M, Magic, Magical Realism, Multi, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-15
Updated: 2015-08-15
Packaged: 2018-04-14 18:21:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4574982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gothams_Only_Wolf/pseuds/Gothams_Only_Wolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes all it takes is an unplanned trip to find unconditional love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sunlit Arcana

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PurrfectCatastrophe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PurrfectCatastrophe/gifts), [kuro49](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuro49/gifts).



> So Magic!Stacker isn't quite done talking. Let's see where he takes us this time, shall we?
> 
> Also, my bad if the Japanese doesn't quite make any sense. I'll take it out if I need to! 
> 
> Enjoy~

* * *

**-Kaneda Air Base, Okinawa Japan: Joint Exercises of SASR and JSD Corps 2010-**

Two years had changed a lot of things about Stacker's life; he wasn't alone, he wasn't dead and his lovers were actually a married couple. 

Talk about one hell of a loop. 

Add on the fact that there'd been a five-year-old boy (now seven) with magic sparking at his fingertips had almost tipped the scales entirely. Chuck had been an accident but one they adored. Stacker hadn't quite known how to approach at first but now... Now Chuck wouldn't quit pestering him and he wouldn't have it any other way. 

"Stacks, c'n you teach me how t' move the flag?" Familiar hazel eyes peered up from under a mess of thick, wavy brown hair. 

"Thought you were drilling with the Shinto miko on earth," he countered with a raise of his brow. 

"I mastered that stuff **ages** ago." Chuck scuffed his shoe against the dirt of the curb. "I wanna try air." 

"Your Mum doesn't want you to try too many elements so soon. We'll work on air if you can tell me what this does and what it means." Stacker drew a heavy earth glyph into the ground with the point of a stick but didn't push any magic into it. 

Chuck stared at it intensely for a long moment, pushing flickers of magic into it but not enough that it would cause the effect to happen. It was engineered to test full Mastery of earth and Chuck had yet to learn. 

"... I... I don't know." He sounded so disappointed but Stacker wouldn't give it to him just yet. 

"Try a little more magic and push up." He suggested as he leaned against the wooden bench set that was put out for leaders of the SASR. 

Chuck concentrated and a small wall sprang up in front of them. "Oh! It's a, umm, a glyph! It's used to bring up walls before flooding can get to lower land or across flatlands, right?" 

"It's a flood barrier, yes, but it's used during monsoon season. Why?" Stacker waited while he flicked his hand (palm facing up to palm facing down) to press the risen earth down again as to not attract regular human attention. 

Chuck paced in front of him with a furrowed brow even after the miko joined them. 

"He'll melt his brain with that face." Kaori teased as she settled next to Stacker on the bench. 

"Chuck wants to move on to air but he still hasn't realized that each element contains strengths and weaknesses counter-balanced by the other three." Stacker hummed with a delighted smile when he sees a sweaty Herc.

Kaori scooted off to the side with Chuck as Stacker tilted Herc's chin up for a series of soft kisses. He'd put up a simple barrier that would bar anyone who wasn't too keen on the idea of two men kissing from seeing them. 

They get lost in each other for a long moment, neither noticing the soft glow coming from Stacker. 

"Uhh, Stacks? Yer glowin'." Herc pointed out with a laugh. He licked at his lips as if tasting Stacker again, the soft hazel gaze looking at the aforementioned golden glow. 

"I am?" He looked at thier intertwined hands with curiosity. "Huh. Guess I am. Where's it coming from?" 

"Dunno. Yer the one with magic at his fingertips Stacker." Herc huffed out, "You, Ang and Chuck. Kaori and I are out-numbered." He teased gently as he swung thier hands gently. 

"This isn't us. There's someone else... Untrained but definitely magical." He replied absently as he forged several wind and earth runes into being. "I need-Chuck, can you grab-" Chuck was already bolting for the sedan. "Sometimes I worry for your kid, Herc. Never sits still long enough to listen fully." Stacker told his lover ruefully. 

"He gets it from my side." Angie chuckled as Chuck skidded to a halt in front of Stacker with the duffel-bag full of magical aides. "Impatient but smart." 

"Hey, luv." Stacker briefly strengthened the barrier around them to kiss Angie until they were both dizzy from lack of air. "When'd you get back here? I take it your trip went well." 

She gave him a secretive smile and another kiss, though this one was far more chaste. "A woman's gotta have some things that are just hers." Angie winked and Stacker leaned into her touch. "So what's with the glow?" 

"One of us; untrained but definitely magical. I'm trying to pin-point them." Stacker summed up as he knelt to dig through the duffel. "Compass, compass. Oh for Bast's sake... **_~~COMPASS~~_**." The object in question slapped into his hand after he uttered the command in the language of his foremother. 

"What was that? I've never heard you do that before." Angie questioned as she sat on the bench. 

"It's something we can do, my family. We speak the language of the dead. Perks of being a descendant." Stacker admitted with shrug. "We're not the only ones by any means. Lots of gods find humans interesting enough to give them the gift of magic. Though these days, only the ones that are still worshipped or remembered have that much power." 

"So, you mean like Japan." Kaori input with a questioning tone. 

"Several places still hold gods with heavy hitting power but they're... reclusive and Bast is only renewed due to the new-age paganism from those who don't have true magic." He agreed as he directed the runes into the proper arrangement and lanced it with a bolt of pure magic. The compass's arrow spun to touch those with magic briefly before pointing at the northwest. 

"Northwest? Nothing's in Kagoshima Prefecture but a forest reserve and the Space Center." Kaori scratched her head but the arrow was unwavering. "You're sure?" 

"That's where our magic user is; the compass is never wrong." Stacker nibbled on his lower lip while he thought hard. "Let's clean up, have dinner and start fresh tomorrow, hmm?" 

"Tactical retreat, more like." Herc teased gently as he planted a soft kiss against Stacker's lips, kissing until Stacker's frown has turned into a smile. "Quit thinkin' so much." Herc tapped two fingers against the furrow in Stacker's brow with a nudge against his shoulder. "We'll find 'em. Promise."

* * *

**-Outside of Kagoshima Prefecture: Tanegashima, Japan 2010-**

The sea spray invigorated Stacker as he stood on the railing of the ferry. He's one of the only ones directly facing the sea though. The Hansens (all three of them) have awful sea-sickness and Kaori's been plastering the area around them with stability sutras on paper. Stacker rolled his wrist to press magic into them, taking pity on his lovers and thier child. 

"Ooh, we're so flying outta here. Don't think I can take much more of this." Herc groaned as Stacker settled them all on the bench. 

"Sorry. Whoever's trying to reach us is causing the waves to move like this. They're powerful if somewhat hazardous with what they can do now." Stacker soothed as he rubbed at Angela and Herc's stomachs. 

Chuck was cradled between his legs and he reached down to rub Chuck's stomach as well. He pressed soft kisses to Angie and Herc's sweaty foreheads and brushed Chuck's sticky hair away from his forehead. 

Kaori's stance was firmly inside the sutras but she was standing just fine. "When Duc told me there was a trio, he wasn't kidding. You're really good with them." 

"I got a chance and I grabbed it with both hands. No regrets, of course, but you're seeing us when we've hit our stride. It was a rocky start." he responded wryly. 

"Oh?" She rose a brow at that. 

"Chuck lit my trousers on fire." Stacker snorted. Kaori covered her mouth but the laugh escaped anyway. "I'm lucky I'm adept at the elements." 

"Yup n _then_ I zapped him with lightning," Chuck added as he pressed his cheek to Stacker's knee. 

"Magic can heal a lot of things, but a lightening strike's a stretch." Stacker continued as he rolled up his sleeves. "I deflected the worst of it with a mirror spell that put the rest into the ground but I wasn't fast enough to escape getting this." He showed her the fern-like scars that ran from his wrists to his chest, though the latter wasn't visible. 

"How badly did that hurt again?" Angela traced her finger over the one on the right with her fingertips. "I never did ask." 

"Like touching a live wire times a thousand. I don't suggest you try it." Stacker snorted in reply before giving Angie a light peck and turning to Herc for another. He ruffled Chuck's hair but didn't offer a kiss until Chuck pouted up at him. He pressed a kiss to Chuck's somewhat cooler forehead with a wry chuckle. "I was in the ICU for a week, I think, before they let me leave." 

"You mean you signed yourself out before anyone could tell you no," Herc rolled his eyes as he shook his head slowly as if testing how he felt. "We spent the next two months slathering healing balm onto his scars, the numbnut." 

"You're all loopy." Kaori muttered as she stepped out of the sutra circle with a shake of her head. "But... You work really well."

* * *

They docked in the harbor and drove to thier ryokan (which had been previously booked). Kaori and Angela checked them in, Stacker and Herc collecting the bags from the car with Chuck carrying Lucky in a ventilated soft cat carrier. 

Angie's Familiar would be joining them shortly after his tour of the island; the osprey (who's name was Vulcan Specter), aloof as he was, did know that Angie wanted him to get along with Lucky Seven. It was a good thing Lucky was more laid back than Astoria or Vulcan would've been **lunch** a while ago. 

He ended up using the hot springs to relax later in the evening. Chuck and Herc joined him after a quick scrub-down in thier other tub. 

"Mmm. I'm actually feelin' better. Sprog, how about you?" Herc asked as Chuck lounged on one of the heated rocks. 

"'S warm. Sea-sickness feels like a bad memory." Chuck hummed with half-lidded eyes. Herc and Stacker exchanged glances that wordlessly made Stacker shift the rocks to cradle Chuck in case he fell asleep. Chuck was out in less than ten minutes. 

Stacker and Herc soaked a little longer before Angie sent an air sprite message. 

_Time for bed, I think. Kaori's barely awake and I'm sure Chuck's snoozing as we speak. Bring him to Kaori, will you? Herc wants to spend the night but he's skittish about asking._

The sprite dissipated before Herc could protest, his lover flushing a shade of pink the Stacker found very attractive. 

"Y'know, Herc, all you have to do is ask." Stacker murmured with kisses to Herc's lips, cheeks and nose. 

"Mm-hmm." Herc looked up with soft hazel eyes that made Stacker cup his cheek and gently kiss Herc until he was blushing for a different reason entirely...

* * *

**-Next Morning-**

Angela woke Stacker up with a nuzzle against his chest, Herc's arm banding around her waist like she's a teddy bear. 

"Morning sleepy-head." Angela's sepia eyes crinkled at the edges as she grinned up at him. "You feeling alright?"

"Hmm..." Stacker leaned down to nibble on her neck, his teeth marking her collarbone with a decent sized hickey. "Never better, luv." 

"Stacks!" She giggled, his fingers tangling in her curls. "Stop it. I won't get to wear my nice top if you-Oh. Herc, not helping." Angela squeaked as Herc sleepily pressed kisses up and down the back of her neck. 

"'Mnot? Ye sure?" The thick Aussie accent caused Angie to worm directly into Stacker's arms. "Nn. Come back, Ang." Herc curled around her, tilting his head back for a kiss from Stacker. "Gimme a kiss?" She met her husband halfway and spent a good thirty seconds with thier lips locked. 

"As much as I love that sight, we need to get ready." Stacker reluctantly informed them. 

Herc whined as he pressed his face inbetween Angela's shoulder blades and inhaled. "No. Let someone else do it." 

"Hun, we're the only magic users for kilometers. We need to help this one." Angie sighed as she turned to pepper Herc's frowning face with light kisses. 

"She's right, babe. We can... always come back here for a nice vacation." Stacker offered and Herc gave Angie a return kiss. 

"I like the sound of that." Herc replied. "Alright, alright, let's get ready. Separate showers 'cause if we don't, we'll be here all mornin'."

* * *

**-Tanegashima Suburbs-**

They drive slowly, Chuck endlessly fascinated by all the signs and asking Kaori to teach him simple kanji. The compass's arrow has only glowed brighter the closer they get. 

Angela stopped the rental in front of a normal Japanese home, the arrow almost blinding at this point. Stacker refined the tracking spell, asking it to hone solely on the person with magic. The arrow pointed to the second window in the upstairs, presumably a bedroom. When they looked closer, there were thick silk sutras hanging from the window shutters. Angela and Stacker traded concerned glances. 

Kaori knocked on the door in her miko clothing, saying something softly and with a smile. The man who answered the door scowled, almost shutting the door on thier close friend; Stacker stuck his foot in the door and allowed his normally subdued magic to come to the fore with his golden eyes glowing brightly. 

"Kaori, could you tell him that we're here for the one upstairs?" He asked in a polite tone, though his gaze could freeze blood at this point. "Whoever it is needs training badly or they're going to cause more weather problems for the island." 

Kaori translated all of it as she crossed her arms to look disapprovingly at the man. 

A woman tugged the man to the side and offered for them to come in, speaking quietly to Kaori as she motioned they take thier shoes off. Stacker gave her a respectful bow as did Angela, the older woman looking pleased after they had done so. Chuck and Herc had stayed with the car, playing a card game that made no sense to Stacker but perfect sense to the Aussie pair. 

"Sorry about making you translate." Stacker murmured in English, brushing a translation spell over his and Angie's throats. "Our apologies, madam." The latter was in Japanese, a language that seemed to be to the point and subtle by turns. 

Kaori blinked but accepted the magic that allowed them to understand and speak the language of the land. 

"You came here for her, you say." 

"Her?" Stacker rose a brow at that; his assumption that the power was female had been correct. Luna's precise control often hid the immense strength behind even the most graceful of spells. "I see." 

"What brought you here could not tell gender?" the older woman's lips pressed thin. 

"What we did only brought us to the source." Angie replied quietly as she accepted the tea. "We... wish to teach the girl, guide her in our arts. She has much potential." 

"Take her. That Mori married our daughter and then died on her, leaving her with a girl that could not pass on his name. She died not long after and the girl started doing terrible things." came the cold reply. "Toro, the papers. These people will take the girl with them." 

"Sign and be done. We want her gone from this place." The woman handed over a pen to Angie before she narrowed her eyes and offered it to Stacker instead. He'd yet to dampen his magic and he could feel minute tremors of other, softer magic attempting to reach him.

"As you say, madam." Stacker barely kept his disgust at thier clear fear from his face through sheer willpower. "Does the girl have a name?" 

"Mako." The word was spat out, the non-magical pair willing to dump an orphaned girl into someone else's hands. 

"Very well." He murmured as he removed each sutra as he walked up the stairs, gently soothing the magic with a soft touch. Stacker burnt the rest of the sutras with a vicious slash of his hand as he knocked on the door. "Mako?" 

"Y-Yes?" 

"Mako can you open the door please?" Stacker's voice doesn't raise nor waver but he's barely keeping his rage in check. 

A little girl peered out with wide glowing blue eyes, thick streaks of blue in her black hair. Water; this girl was full of water magic and so, so very frightened. 

"Hello." she gave a bow and Stacker returned it before crouching. "Who are you?" 

"Your... Your teacher, Mako. I'm here to help you with this." Stacker turns his hand in a circle to show her a water bubble. "Would you like to come with me and my friends?" 

"Isn't there something else?" 

"No. I have adopted you. The papers are all filled out. Would you like me to help you pack?" He answered honestly as he popped the bubble to return the moisture to the room. 

"Can you do more like that?" She asked, obviously referring to the water bubble. 

"I can and I will teach you how to use what you have." Stacker drew runes into the air and on the hardwood floor to get everything floating. The suitcase he floated to the middle of the array, packing what looked like her clothing and other things that she touched with a soft, sad smile. 

Stacker privately swore that she would have everything she could ask for within reason.

* * *

The drive back to the ryokan is quiet, Mako asleep in his lap as Herc kept an eye on the road. Angie rode in the back with Chuck's face buried in her shoulder. Kaori took a flight back to Okinawa, citing important and unavoidable shrine duties. 

Stacker set Mako up with him, Chuck offering to take the futon on the floor. 

"I c'n-" 

"I'll be taking the floor. I am still a soldier." he teased Chuck after he expanded the bedding with magic. "You don't mind sharing, do you?" 

"Nah. I, umm, I like Mako. She's quiet." Chuck admitted with a light shrug, tucking a pillow under Mako's head absently. "Does this mean you're not gonna have time for us anymore?" 

Stacker turned around at that, his gaze taking in Chuck's hunched shoulders and the way his hands picked at the covers. 

He picked up Chuck easily, setting an alarm to alert him in case Mako woke up and left Lucky to curl next to her. Vulcan had perched in the rafters over Mako with the golden-orange eyes never leaving her small frame. 

"If you think raising another kid along with you is going to make me go away, Chuck, you better think again." Stacker looked Chuck in the eyes as he spoke. "Listen... Mako didn't have what you do." They walked through the ryokan to the inner courtyard with the sand garden and small trees. "She lost her parents and her guides back-to-back. Mako's going to take a bit to open up. That's where you come in." 

"Huh?" Chuck's brow furrowed at the thought that he was part of the plan. "Me?" 

"Yes you," Stacker agreed as they settle along the outer hallway, socked feet dangling over the edge. "She's not going to tell an _adult_ how she feels." 

"... Oh." The realization brightens the hazel eyes as Chuck listened carefully. 

"At least not right away. She's going to have to adjust to a lot of things, including English, so I'm going to teach you the translation spell." He showed Chuck the motions for the spell (touching near the left ear, two fingers against the lips and four across the throat going to the right) and then the runes. 

Chuck practiced without magic and then slowly with more and more magic necessary to power the spell into being. 

"Watashi wa sore o tadashī eru ka. Nihongo o hanasu yo?" 

"As I haven't cast the spell since this morning and I'm hearing Japanese, you were successful. Now, to get back to English..."

* * *

Mako slowly opened up to them, watching everything they do together with some reserve. Stacker used the spell less and less because he was learning Japanese as well as Japan's culture with a tutor. Chuck practically flew through the ones he shared with Stacker as he and Mako were constantly talking. 

Stacker waited patiently, smiling softly when Mako started taking Lucky with her and Chuck on thier little 'adventures' outside of the ryokan and to the playground. Vulcan went with the children and so did Herc, most of the time, though Stacker joined them most days. 

Angela'd had to fly back to Sydney due to a company emergency but that didn't stop them from being initmate over Skype and in Herc's room. Those nights were usually on the weekends and after the kids had been tired out by a full day. 

It culminated in Mako reaching for Stacker's hand after some idiot had made a stupid remark about Mako and Chuck's friendship. Stacker didn't use magic, didn't have to as he towered over the high-school aged boys. 

"What was that you said about my daughter and my son?" He asked quietly, holding both Chuck and Mako's hands with his own. 

"Nothin', old man." 

"That's what I thought." Stacker turned around, ushering the two into the rental. "Talk about them like that again and I'll see to it that the authorities find you." He got into the car and drove them back to the ryokan with a stern expression. 

"Sensei... Did we do anything wrong?" Mako immediately asked after they were back in the rooms. 

"No, Mako. You responded well by getting me." He kissed her forehead and ruffled Chuck's dark brown hair (though it had lightened a few shades due to all the sun it got). 

"I wanted to push them with... with magic," she admitted with a flush of pink. "I wanted to **make** them go away." 

"You had good control. You as well, Chuck, though I saw that glyph I taught you hovering in the air." he soothed them both as they cuddled close to him. 

They all stayed on the bed together, eventually falling asleep with Mako on one side of him and Chuck on the other. 

Herc snuck a pic when he went to check on them. It went into the photo album labeled 'Japan: Mako, Chuck and cuddles'.

* * *

Mako opened up on a rainy day when Herc and Chuck were out getting food and to spend time together. 

"Sensei?" She tugged on his sleeve, her eyes faintly blue as she bit at her lower lip. 

"Yes, Mako." He turned to her immediately, watched patiently while she dragged her red-socked foot along the hardwood floor. 

"Can you fix my sock?" Stacker accepted the knitted sock as Mako climbed into his lap quietly. 

"Of course." He absently flicked his fingers over the unravelled yarn, making the sock remember it's proper shape. "Mako?" 

She'd buried her face against his shoulder as wetness spread over the blue sweater with harsh sobs racking her body. Stacker put the sock back onto her foot as he waited, rubbing up and down her little back gently. Fistfuls of his sweater bunched in her small hands but he knew she had to get out her grief. 

After a long while she slowed and looked up with red eyes. Stacker wiped away her tears with a handkerchief dipped in cold water. 

"Arigato, Sensei." 

"Mako," Stacker paused briefly before continuing, "May I ask what happened?" 

"Yes." She appeared to be gathering her strength as she took a deep breath coupled with a sniffle. "Otou-san was sick; Kaa-san couldn't heal him with her magic spells or potions. So we went to Tokyo to see someone with science instead." 

Stacker's heart sunk at the realization. "Cancer?" Magical folk were still susceptable to the harsher diseases but it sounded like Mako's Father had been a non-magical. 

"... Yes. Stage IV. Too much to remove and Otou-San was so tired. We came here so Kaa-san could help him visit Izanami," she wiped her nose with the handkerchief. "Kami of death." Mako clarified with a pat over her heart. "She followed him not too long after." 

"Did they leave you alone up there?" Stacker's horrified that they would leave her like that. 

"After my magic... flooded the viewing parlor. I did not know I had it." She admitted with a frown. "They took me to a priest to get exorcized but he told them I wasn't possessed; Inari had blessed me with magic. He suggested training at the local shrine but they ignored him." 

"And that's when I came in?" 

"You rescued me." She hugged him tightly and looked up at him with her tawny eyes. Stacker rested his forehead against hers with an adoring look. The streaks of blue in Mako's hair went from a pale sea foam to a deep sapphire after the heart-felt discussion they'd just had. 

"I think it was mutual, Mako." He murmured wryly as he rocked them softly in the hammock he summoned from his old B-Hut in Afghanistan. Mako looked at the dusty cloth with faint fascination. "Want me to teach you how to summon?" 

"Yes please." A sweet smile lit Mako's entire face up and Stacker's immensely glad that they met. 

(He may or may not have to _suppress_ the urge to go to Inari's shrine and point the goddess in the direction of Mako's grandparents.)

* * *

The return to Sydney was short as Stacker was getting assigned elsewhere (California) for a period of time. 

Mako'd been texting Chuck between flights, often sending goofy faces and giggling at the return ones. Lucky was in her carrier again, passed out with a sleep-spell laid on her due to the anxiety of flying. 

Stacker timed his Skype call just so and—

"Stacker? I thought you were in California?" Angela's beautiful in the morning light with thick kinky curls spilling over her shoulders as she set the laptop on the kitchen table. His heart aches at the sight of her, smiling as she held up a finger to call in her boys. "Chuck, Herc, Stacker's online!" 

"What's he even doin' up this late?" Herc asked as he poked his head into the kitchen waving as he sticks the sandwich in his hand into his mouth. Chuck followed with a wide grin and a wriggling, wrinkly puppy. 

"Stacks, look! I found my Familiar. His name's Max." The puppy wuffed softly at his name. 

"Good morning to you all too." He replied with a laugh. "Mako, you want in on this?" 

"Hai." She sat in his lap, her feet brushing his shins but not the floor of the airport lobby. "Good morning." 

"Hi Mako. How was the flight?" Angie asked as she slathered Vegemite on Herc's toast. Angie, for being a true-blue Aussie, hated the stuff but Chuck stole his Dad's toast before replacing it with another slice. "Chuck, do that again and I'll stick you on the ceiling." 

"It was... good." Mako took a moment to form her sentences in English but Stacker was the same with Japanese; they were both still learning. "Long and I slept a lot on the way over. I saw the sunrise though." 

"Awesome!" Chuck haphazardly sat in Angie's lap, Angela keeping him there with an arm curling around him. "Did you see the foxes?" 

"Mm-hmm. Inari sent some kitsune along to help me adjust." Mako brightened at the mention of the fox goddess's Familiars. "She said they were mine to use though I don't understand what she means just yet." 

"Ask Stacks. He knows _everything_." Chuck promptly replied before chewing on his stolen toast. 

"Not everything but yes, a great deal of things." Stacker corrected when Mako turned to him with wide eyes. "We'll visit her shrine here when we're better rested." 

"Thank you." Mako settled back against him and stole sips of his black tea. 

"So we came across this awesome thing..." he listened with a half-smile, soaking in the warmth of the late afternoon sun and the weight of Mako as she animatedly replied to Chuck's story. 

Stacker mused that change was something unavoidable but it certainly shook things up.

**Author's Note:**

> Comment, complain, ect.


End file.
